WHO WE ARE

The Christian Evangelical Baptist Union of Italy (UCEBI) is a Christian denomination present in Italy since 1861 and in Rome from 1870, with numerous preaching points and historic churches even in the city center. It belongs to the larger family of the Baptists that originated in England in the 17th century as one of the Churches from the Protestant Reformation, and today numbers over 100 million believers worldwide.

UCEBI is a religious denomination recognized by the Italian Government by a law of mutual accord approved by Parliament in 1995, which oversees and guarantees in our country the freedoms of our witness, preaching and religious, cultural and social service.

There are Baptist churches in all the regions of Italy.

In the last 20 years, the Baptist Union has assumed a multiethnic composition, in that, almost one third of the member and watch-care churches are composed of ethnic and linguistic minorities from the world of immigrant workers present in Italy. However, the churches of the Baptist Union constitute a very important point of reference also for those ethnic minority churches of other Protestant denominations that are not yet members of the Union, but are in close contact with our churches. Taking only one example, that of Rome itself, we have 12 member churches and among these, there are 7 ethnic minority churches (Chinese, 3 Romanian, Korean, Eritrean, Filipino), but also a gamut of at least 20-25 churches of foreign immigrants that are hosted in the facilities of our churches. Their ethnicities are: African (Eritrean, Nigerian, Ethiopian, Ivory Coast, mixed French speaking); Asian (Filipino, Korean, Chinese); Eastern Europe (Romanian, Ukrainian); and Latin American. We also have an inter-ethnic, English-language church located in Piazza in Lucina. In addition, many of our Italian-language churches have among their members, groups of immigrant believers that know our language and are well-integrated into Italian life.

The inclusion of believers from diverse backgrounds and the opening of our churches to cultural diversity has been a deliberate choice practiced over the years, with the confirmation of the phenomenon of immigration, a phenomenon first present only in a sporadic manner. The Baptist tradition having always, that is from the 17th century, supported civil and religious liberty and respect for minorities, has constituted the ideal basis of our commitment against every form of discrimination and racism, reinforced by the strong tradition of the antiracist fight in the American Civil Rights’ Movement of the 60’s.

The tradition of Italian Baptists is in fact closely joined with that of African-American Baptists, and in particular with the Churches that have been the mainstay in the fight by non-violence for civil rights, for justice and peace. This being the method actively used in the 60’s in the United States, under the leadership of Martin Luther King, Baptist pastor and recipient of the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1964.

For this moral contiguity and spiritual affinity the Italian Baptist Union has in recent years established a partnership with the African-American churches of the Lott Carey Foreign Mission Convention (website: www.lottcarey.org) that represent a historical and ideological continuity with the movement of Dr. Martin Luther King.

In the last 2 years the Baptist Union has been the leader in Italy for the program “Dimezziamo la poverta" (‘Cut Poverty in Half’), a campaign known throughout the world as “Global Call To Action Against Poverty”, and in the international evangelical realm as the “Micah Challenge”, that insists for the attainment of the “Objectives of the Millennium” – part of an 8-point plan launched by the United Nations, to cut world poverty in half by the year 2015.

To give a concrete contribution in this area of the struggle against poverty, UCEBI is active in various parts of the world in projects of solidarity. Most recently it has launched a project in Zimbabwe in support of a hospital and 6 rural clinics that care primarily for victims of the Aids pandemic in that country.